1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of automated pharmaceutical product packaging machines. More specifically, the present invention is directed to an automated pharmaceutical product packaging machine which simultaneously fills a plurality of product package templates in parallel with desired pharmaceutical dosing requirements. The templates are subsequently positioned over a temporary storage template having cavities for receiving solid pharmaceutical doses. A collector member is subsequently placed beneath the temporary storage template for receiving the pharmaceuticals which in turn is positioned over a solid pharmaceutical product package having a plurality of cavities which correspond to openings on the templates and wherein each of the templates fills a pharmaceutical package.
2. Description of the Related Art
There are a wide variety of automated pharmaceutical product packaging machines currently available. Many of these machines in the prior art are designed for packaging a single pharmaceutical product into a single dose package. The existing machines typically transfer individual doses into a single cavity formed within a clear plastic cover member.
Usually, a plurality of cavities are formed in a single sheet of clear plastic material and a corresponding plurality of pharmaceutical product doses are inserted by a filling machine. Once the solid pharmaceutical doses have been inserted into the cavities, a backing material is then adhesively applied to the clear plastic sheet to seal the solid pharmaceutical products within the package. These automated machines satisfy the majority of solid pharmaceutical packaging requirements where a single product is inserted into the dose package. However, it has been recognized that for managed care and other settings, there is a significant need for automated pharmaceutical packaging machines which are capable of selectively depositing one or more pharmaceutical doses into each of a plurality of individual cavities in an overall pharmaceutical product package.
Managed care facilities now use patient-specific packaging that provide all of the designated patient's prescription drug needs for a given period of time. The period of time is typically a one week or one month supply. Existing packaging solutions typically employ solid pharmaceutical product package cards that contain all of the specific patient's doses for a one week period of time. Each dose of one or more pharmaceuticals is stored in a clear plastic cavity. These dosing cards may include three to four clear plastic cavities for any given day that correspond with each prescribed dosage time for a patient's medication requirements. Alternatively, each patient may have as many as ten different product packages, each containing the dosing requirements for a given period of time.
The inventors of the present application have previously filed an application on an automated solid pharmaceutical product packaging machine which selectively fills a plurality of different dosing cavities with a plurality of different solid pharmaceutical medications for a single patient. This prior application and the referenced subject matter contained therein had overcome the shortcoming of the prior art and provided managed care facilities with the ability to create a customized package containing a specific patient's dose of solid pharmaceuticals for a given period of time. One of the shortcomings of the device of the prior application is that the available selection of pharmaceuticals for filling each of the cavities was limited by the structure of the machine described in the referenced prior application. Specifically, in the prior application, only a single package template was filled by the machine at any given period of time. In this prior machine, the feed mechanism positioned each of the respective cavities of a template under a mechanical source for solid pharmaceutical products that was fed in turn by a plurality of dispensing canisters, each respectively containing an individual pharmaceutical. This prior machine was incapable of simultaneously filling a plurality of different cavities.
As a result, the prior machine had several shortcomings. First the machine had inherent speed limitations and therefore could not fill a customized patient product package very rapidly. Additionally, depending upon the variety of pharmaceutical packages that were to be prepared by a medical institution, it might be possible that two machines would be necessary in order to fill each of a plurality of patient requirements in respective patient dosing cards. The inventors of the present application have overcome the shortcomings of the prior art and have set forth herein an improved solid pharmaceutical product packaging machine which is capable more rapidly filling a plurality of solid pharmaceutical product package dosing requirements.